Fable: Heroes of Order- Chapter 2
The Heroes and their young apprentice then made their way back to the ship. It was a quiet sail back to the Albion main lands. The young apprentice's mentors all had the same saddened and concerned look on their faces. After the long sail they had finally arrived at Bowerstone Quay. "Ah yes!" Said Kayma in a cheerful tone as the ship approached to make port, "Here we are! The city of Bowerstone!" "It's great to be back finally." Said Ami. "It most definitely is, but let's not forget we need to be careful. From the sounds of that journal he made it seem like some people will trample all over us if they even think we're Heroes and these clothes were in don't exactly help us blend in." Replied Jarissa. "A very good point. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for our young apprentice to socialize among the people of Albion." As Kayma turned his attention to the young apprentice. "Actually if I may, I think I have an idea." Said Ami, "I think we can kill two birds with one stone. If we can get him to blend in with the crowd, maybe he can ask around Bowerstone about where the Hero and his wife had their first date. After all, the journal did say he met his wife in Bowerstone. Perhaps she still has family or friends that might know something." "Yes, but we don't know who any of them are." Jarissa replied. "Well, it did also say he came here to get supplies for The Guild. Perhaps one of the local vendors know something." She replied back. "Perhaps you are right Ami. While it may not be much to go on we might still find something out. I think I may have some spare clothing that may fit you. Go put it on and let us know when you're ready young apprentice." Said Kayma as he handed him a villager outfit. After the young apprentice had changed out of his apprentice robe he put on the spare villager outfit. The ship had then docked and the crewmen had lowered the boarding platform to the dock. He then approached the three. "Ah look at that, a perfect suit that blends in." Said Kayma with slight enthusiasm. "Just remember not to dilly dally along the way. We still need to get to the Grandmother and child as soon as we can." Said Jarissa. "He will be fine." Kayma said as he turned to the young apprentice, "I don't have much on me, but here is some gold. You will need some more supplies after we leave. Now, off you go young apprentice. Once you have found out what we need to know come back to the ship. We will be waiting." The young apprentice had then exited the ship and into the busy cobbled streets of Bowerstone. He had first went to the gift vendor near the town gates. "Oh hello there young lad, what can I do for you?" Asked the gift vendor as he approached, "Oh you don't want to buy anything... well if you're here for employment I'm afraid I'm not hiring right now. Last person I hired ended up disappearing after The Guild burned down." The young apprentice asked if her name was Anna. "Why yes, her name was Anna. Nice hard working girl she was. I take it you're a relative of hers. I don't know if she survived the Guild attack or not, but I know she had to quit here before leaving there with her new born and Hero husband. She did have a good friend who knew her well, her name is Sarah. She's a bar maid at the local tavern, maybe she might know something of her whereabouts." The young apprentice then made his way to the Bowerstone Tavern. He scanned the room full of roudy villagers as they indulged in their drinks. Then he noticed the bar maid making her way back to the large beer barrel to refill her serving pitcher. He had then made his way to approach her. "Hi there, what will it be?" She asked, "Oh you had a question, sure what is it?" The young apprentice had asked her about her former best friend Anna. "Anna... yes I knew her, but if you're a long lost friend I'm afraid I don't know what happened to her. We were best friends since we were little. She ended up marrying a Hero and they were both presumed dead in The Guild attack along with their newborn. It hurt me to cut ties with her but after those mobs started killing Heroes and anyone associated with them I had to. I had my own family to think about too. I kind of wish she just stuck to normal village men. Oh but don't get me wrong, her husband was a good man and all. In fact I remember the first day she met him. She was so happy and excited. Said he was taking her to The Rose Cottage for their first date. But anyway I really should be getting back to work. I just hope her and her family are still safe somewhere." The young apprentice then headed out of the tavern and made his way back to the Quay. He then approached his three mentors standing by the docks where the ship was docked but now departed. The three were now wearing casusal villager outfits. "Ah there he is." Said Kayma, "As you can see we did a little wardrobe change ourselves." "Where have you been? Did you have an extensive conversation with the entire Bowerstone population?" Jarissa asked rhetorically. "Go easy Jarissa, I'm sure the boy has found out plenty." Said Kayma as he turned to the young apprentice, "You did find out what we needed to, yes?" The young apprentice nodded. "Good, good I knew you could do it." He replied. "So... where did they have their first date?" Asked Jarissa. The young apprentice gave the place. "Hm, The Rose Cottage, I guess that would be a decent place for a date." She replied. "Yes it would." Ami said, "it is a rather good romantic spot for a picnic." "And a rather good spot to hide from the mobs." Jarissa added, "We should get going." "Yes, let us go to the Rose Cottage." Said Kayma. When the party of four had made their way close to exiting the town gates, they saw a villager running from three other men from the side of the street. One of the three men had shouted, "Hero! This man's a bloody Hero! Get him!" As the three men had tackled the lone villager to the ground in the middle of the street in front of the Heroes. The three men started kicking him repeatedly. "No! Stop! I'm not a Hero! I've never even been inside The Guild! Ouch! Stop it!" He screamed in pain. Just then the town guards had intervened, "Break it up! Break it up!" One of the guards shouted as they grabbed each of the three by their shirts. "You three are under arrest. It's off to Bowerstone Jail for you." As the guards brought out their shackles. "No! You guards are blind! All Heroes must die, they are savages!" Said one of the three men. "There is no excuse for your actions, now let's go!" As the guards took them away hand cuffed behind their backs. The victim had slowly got up bruised but fine and had walked away. The four had continued to walk out of the city, "I cannot believe how chaotic things have got since we left." Said Jarissa. "It is a tragedy indeed." Replied Kayma. The four had made their way to Lookout Point. They walked up the inclined trail to the center statue area where they saw a corpse hanging from a tree with a banner around the gorse that read 'Hero Worshiper.' "This is madness!" Kayma said in an upset tone as they looked upon the corpse, "Hanging people who support Heroes, this is an outrage!" "Easy Kayma, I'm as outraged as you are, but I don't think we want to join him up there either, best keep your rants down." Said Jarissa as she quick glanced around at the few villagers walking by the area. "That poor man." Said Ami with a frowned look, "What have these people done?" "May Avo watch over his soul." Said Kayma in a lower calmer tone, "Come, let us see what remains of our Guild." "Fine, but we need to make it quick. Let's not forget we need to get to grandmother and child." Said Jarissa. "Then let us go." Kayma said. The four had taken the trail that lead to where The Guild once stood. As they approached from the declined trail they could see the two large wooden doors that was once the entrance broken down. The stone walls that had once bordered the property were badly damaged. "I cannot believe this monstrosity! Look at this place! They destroyed it, everything!" Said Kayma outraged as they continued to walk into the ruined Guild through the hollowed entrance way. "I still can't believe this." Said Ami in a saddend voice. The four had reached the map room when they entered. In there they had saw the map table broken to pieces, walls burnt, one of the two archways that lead to the dining area collapsed, and skeletal corpses of both Heroes and civilians, but mostly Heroes. "The bastards!" Jarissa said angrily, "You figure for a Guild of powerful Heroes this wouldn't have happened especially against civilians guns or not." "Most of them had hesitated Jarissa, it wasn't just the mere fact that they had guns and greater numbers." Explained Kayma, "But we must not make that same mistake. We must fight on and bring an end to all of this. We must join with the Elite Order." "Couldn't agree more, but first we need to get to The Rose Cottage. Although I'd hate to see any left over items or equipment that survived to just be laying around here." Said Jarissa as she looked toward the young apprentice, "Why don't you and Ami go check out the rest of the remains and see what you can find. Kayma and I will stay here a search around. I'd say the best place to start would be the dormitories. But if you want to check more places knock yourself out. I'm sure the Demon Door by the Will area survived." "Very well, let's go young apprentice." Ami said in a keen voice. The young apprentice and Ami had searched the ruined areas of where the Guild once stood. The tower where the Hero Mazes quarters had been was completely knocked down. The melee practice ring was destroyed with potholes and burn marks along with the stone fence. The archery and Will area were charred and the dummies burnt to ashes. On top of that there were even more dead skeletal bodies throughout the rubble and ruined grounds. Near one of the dead skeletal remains was a diary that read the following: "It was just another day of Hero training. I was set to graduate as a Hero soon. Just as I came out of the Guild Woods with the new Guild Master after completing my final test I heard the Guild alarm sound. It was then right I saw a small group of Heroes running across the river yelling about civilians breaking down the doors and being armed with those small hand canon devices. Next thing I knew The Guild was swarmed with a near sized army of villagers slaughtering everyone of us. Most of the Heroes even the more powerful ones hesitated to fight back. Others fought back, but even so their numbers had been far greater than ours." The young apprentice and Ami had continued to explore the remains of The Guild. They had gone up a flight of stairs in the main building that led to the dormitories. The young apprentice found a few health potions and yew long bow. When him and Ami reached the final dormitory area they heard a noise behind a pile of knocked down ceiling rubble. "Wait, what was that?" Asked Ami. "Well, what do we have here?" Asked a man's voice as they saw a half dozen gun armed men appear out from behind the rubble. "Who are you?" She asked them in an allergic tone. "We're from a certain organization that gets rid of Heroes and it appears it's our lucky day. Nice try with the disguises though, but only Heroes would come here snooping about." Replied one of the men as they raised their guns toward the pair. "You're making a mistake, stop this now, we don't want to hurt you." Said Ami. "And you won't hurt us, it's going to be the other way around. Shoot em lads!" The man ordered. Ami and the young apprentice had broken out fighting with the six. The young apprentice had used his rusty training sword to fight them while Ami used her lightning. They had quickly finished the six mob members off as the young apprentice finished the last one off with a hard slash of his sword. "Are you alright?" Ami asked. The young apprentice nodded. "I think one of those gun rounds scratched me on my arm a bit. It stings, but I'll be alright. You know I must say I think we've done a fantastic job of training you. You most definitely have the makings of a Hero in you... and if I dare say the handsome appearance of one too." Said Ami as she let out a slight flirtatious giggle, "But anyway, we should get back to Kayma and Jarissa. Let's go." The two then made their way back to the map room and met back up with Kayma and Jarissa. "There you two are." Jarissa said as Ami and the young apprentice approached, "It's about time too, we could've swore we heard gun fire." "Ami you are wounded, what happened?" Kayma asked in a concerned tone as he noticed the slight blood seep on her forearm. "I am fine, just need some bandage wrap, but we should probably leave. We ran into some mob members in the dormitories, we took care of them though. I don't think there's anymore lurking about, but again we should go in case more show up." Said Ami. "They were probably scouts that were stationed here in case any stragglers like us came back here. I knew I had a bad feeling about coming here. Nonetheless you're right Ami, let's get out of here." Replied Jarissa. "Wait a minute, we should not go through Lookout Point again, too risky. But I happen to know a secret secluded path in The Guild Woods that will lead us straight into Greatwood Entrance area." Said Kayma. "Well whatever gets us out of here I suppose. Lead the way." Said Jarissa as the four began to head to The Guild Woods.